Thank You, JoJo

In October, I'll be exhibiting a few of my quilts as part of 21 past presidents of the Clark County Quilter's guild. I was president from June 2013 to June of 2014. We were chosen to be the featured artists for the show this year. In this link, you can see all of us.

In my mind, I had a few quilts that I wanted share; but, when it came to making THE choice of what would fit the space. . .well, that was another story. So, I stalled and then I asked for help. JoJo from "Through My Hands," came to visit. Here is a bonus for you, if you click on her link, you have the opportunity to join her on an adventure. Hanging out with JoJo is always fun so I hope you will join us! She took me on a year hexagon journey that was one of the best mysteries I've ever been on. You can see my finished project here.

Oops, I just lost my "focus" so let's get back to my problem of selecting quilts! My house is small and the largest space is the living room floor. I cleaned the floor several times to remove as much Bailey hair as possible. Bailey is our two year old golden retriever. I comb/brush her every day; but, she still drops loads of hair. Before you ask if she is worth it, I'll tell you yes. She is the sweetest dog we have ever had. Yes, she spends a lot of time in the recliner in this position too!

Oops, my "FOCUS" is definitely off today!!! I collected my quilts for consideration. I separated the quilts into stacks. The stacks were: probably not, maybe okay, possibly and absolutely.  Later, I realized I had left seven quilts on my walls, two on beds and one in storage that I totally forgot! I had plenty to choose from.

Had I thought--I would have photographed the piles of quilts so I could have shared some of the chaos with you. My DH walked into the house when we were in process. First, his eyes were like saucers and his mouth opened and closed. In the end, he shook his head over the piles! He said something like. . ."I'm not even going to ask!" What a smart man he was!

My display space allotment for the show is 16 feet and 5 inches on one wall and 8 feet 1 inch on another. It was great working with JoJo and hearing her input. She kept me focused on the selection process and in a little over an hour the job was complete. I had been agonizing over choosing for months and look at all the time I wasted!

What helped me was watching her deal with the challenge. I was grouping the quilts in terms of techniques. She grouped the quilts according to color or if there was an element that was repeated from one quilt to another. Immediately, I felt a sense of calm so I knew we were on the right track.

We would get a grouping together only to find out that we had more "quilt" than space or there wasn't an appropriate sized quilt left to fill the space. On one occasion, JoJo said, you should have made a smaller one and another time, she said, what? There isn't another quilt that will work with this color grouping? You'd better get busy!
In the end, these are the quilts that I'll share. We chose quilts that will hang well with each other and also show a variety of techniques.

Each of the quilts in the first grouping have a bit of yellow in them along with some tans/browns. The Santa, I stitched in 1998. The other quilt with tree border, I stitched in 2010. The one with the two women, I stitched in 2010. The one with the barn I stitched in 2007. You can read about it here.  The mini that you can only see the corner of, I stitched in 2015.

There is appliqué, thread work, piecing, quilting, pieced backs and scrap usage! I had to chuckle, I  guess over the years, I haven't changed a whole bunch!!!

In this group, the main colors are red, white and blue! I'm still quilting on the president's block which is on the far left. The pink/red one in the center was originally going to be a table runner using Gyleen Fitzgerald's pineapple ruler; but, I kept finding more scraps so I kept making more blocks! I made it in 2012. The blue and white quilt at the top, I stitched in 2015. I posted about it here. The Asian looking piece, I stitched in 2007 and the red, white and black piece, I quilted in 2008.

It was a good exercise to get the quilts out and group them. I really had no idea that I had so many in a particular color way!  By the way, if you would like to see any of these quilts in their own post, let me know in the comments section. I'd be happy to tell you what inspired them; but, I don't want to bore you.

I am blessed to have friends who tell me like it is. I appreciate their input and their patience getting that information into my head! Thanks again, JoJo!!! Who helps you when you get stuck?